The only thing that would ever be worse, would be if Mizukage-sama proposed to him, since he would have no choice but to accept and knowing how much that bastard picked on him in situations like these, he would probably find that happening one day. Why was that moron the leader of the village anyway? Just because everyone else has respect for him and only Danjuro thought he was a bureaucratic little shit, despite having never beaten the old man. He knew there would be absolutely nothing to gain from this entire situation. He certainly wasn’t going to learn anything special froma bunch of brats from the Hidden leaf Village, and he certainly wasn’t going to let them learn anything from him. As far as Itamae Danjuro was concerned, the only thing that would he would be dong this month, was scavenger hunts and training exercises, which in no way actually involved him. Give them little things to do, stuff that even rookie genin could do with incredible ease and without loss of limbs and then spend the next month creating a few new recipes for the café.

“How did I even get into this situation?” he thought loudly to himself, as he skimmed off the surface of the water like a flat stone. He was currently heading for the border between the countries of Water and Fire, where the meeting place for him to pick up his new `team’ had been set. Unfortunately, what Mizukage-sama had neglected to mention to him at the time he forced him into the program, was that he would be the only one from the Hidden Village of Mist participating in the program as a jounin. As such, he had to pick up his new `team’ himself, which explained why he was currently skimming over the largest sea in the water country, if not the entire planet, just to reach the country of fire. He could only imagine himself being half way there and was glad he had refused a boat in order to increase his speed.

As he travelled, he found himself thinking of the particular mission that had cursed him to this fate. It had clearly been a mix of the partial failure of the last mission, the fight with the woman from the Hidden Village of clouds and Mizukage-sama’s inexplicable urge to vomit on him, every time Danjuro blinked, that had put him in this situation. In other words, it was his fate that had cursed him to this fate.

Flashback: 1 month earlier

The mission background had many complex details to it. He always hated those types, since it never guaranteed when you were going to change sides or not, or when your enemies were or not. The Country of Lightning had been engaged in civil war for a while now, with at least five strong factions, all fighting for power. The Hidden Village of Clouds had taken up an alliance with only one of these powers, so the other four had to depend on hiring ninja from other villages whenever they needed them and that is how the Hidden Village of Mist got caught up in it all.

The client was one of the heads of the second major faction in the country, a man named Niro, and the mission was a relatively simple one on paper. Sabotage. Danjuro, as well as eight chuunin, were to make a nine-man assault team, and cripple war machines of another faction in the Country of Lightning. It would have been a relatively simple job, had Niro not wished them to do it only when the war machines had been complete, and were on delivery route from their factory to the border where they were to be stationed. Sabotaging the machines would mean little if they were still in the factory. The point of this mission was to stall for time, meaning to knock them back to the start of production only when they had finished production and not when they were halfway through. This meant that Danjuro had to spend two weeks alone, just waiting for them to finish, stationed in trees two miles away from the factory, while one of the chuunin in his group worked as a cleaner in the factory.

It was a dry day when they finally decided to start moving the machines out. He didn’t have a clue what they were at the time, as they were hidden under a large sheet of canvas that covered the backs of the lorries transporting them. The only thing he could think of, was that they were long range artillery of some kind, even this was a random guess. There was no real point in thinking about it, as the mission seemed relatively simple from here. Sabotage the weapons. Best done by destroying the wheels that they were travelling on, since it would be hard even for the strongest to carry them without wheels. As a bonus, destroy any machine completely if it was possible. Make it so at least eight of the ten machines would be immovable for a month and the mission would be considered a success.

It should have been so easy, if it wasn’t for that damn woman.

***************************************

Sayuki sneezed unexplainably, and sniffed slightly, whilenot taking her eyes off the list in front of her. She had been assigned team eight of the Hidden Leaf Village and they were supposed to be around here somewhere. All around her, groups of three were scattered sitting with heavy bags, waiting for one of the many jounin wandering around to pick them up. At the sidelines, supervisors stood, Sayuki remained slightly unsure as to whether their mission was to simply inform jounin where to go, or to prevent anything happening before it starts. The borders of the Fire and Lightning countries had been made the official meeting place for the genin exchange program. The place was technically a no man’s land, away from the market towns that scattered the boarders and instead within a clearing in the forest. She could feel the air of nervousness all around her, as different groups stared at each other, be it out of fear or caution. There was no real danger, not a single ninja here would dare attack another, especially since there were no orders to.

No orders she was aware of anyway. Even so, she could not blame everyone for being paranoid. A single mistake here, or a misunderstood gesture there, could cost all of their lives. They would just have to hope that no genin would get too cocky or have any bad memories. About ten years ago, the two countries had been at war, which was only ended with the death of the highest member of the noblest family in the Hidden Leaf Village. She kind of felt bad that despite this important act, she could even remember the man’s name.

Despite being annoyed at the whole situation, she kept her emotions in. She sighed inwardly, as she realised that she would probably have to remain stoic for the entire month, if the ninja code was to be truly kept to. The entire thing didn’t seem fair to her. She knew for a fact, that no one wanted to be here at all, be it genin, jounin, or any special supervisor. No matter what clan, no matter what village, everyone just wanted this month to end. Why else would there currently be three hundred people in the forest and yet there was not a single audible sound? It was almost creepy. Almost.

As she continued to look around, her frustration began to build. Where was her group? All of the people around her were from the Hidden Leaf Village, and yet all of them were younger than fifteen. There were about ten groups here, making thirty people, thirty-one if she counted the dog one boy was carrying, but none of them were adults. This didn’t make any sense, did they give up already and head back to their village? She knew Raikage-sama had given her adult genin, which possibly made them weaker than any of the kids here, but the Exchange Program was supposed to be a training mission, there should be no need for them to…. She sensed someone above her. Looking up, she saw three people in the trees, relaxing. They each had badly shaved heads and one of them was currently smoking as they laughed for some unknown reason. Around each of their arms were forehead protectors for the Hidden Leaf Village. She allowed herself a breath of relief before putting on a stern look and shouting to them.

“Are you guys team eight?” She asked them, only just grabbing their attention. One of them gave her a quick look over, as if whoever it was wasn’t worthy of their attention. The man’s eyes opened wide as he saw her.

“Hey, it’s a hottie,” he said, far too bluntly for Sayuki’s tastes. The other two looked round when they heard this and stared at the babe in front of them. They quickly dropped down from the trees they were in and landed next to her.

“Yeah, we’re team eight,” the second genin said, although she could hardly tell the difference between him and the first genin, or the third for that matter. Were they triplets? “Are you going to be our new mommy, babe?” Sayuki’s pupils turned to the size of a molecule at this as she stared hard at him. For some reason he didn’t sway at this intent to kill, most people would have just executed themselves as a form of apology.

“Excuse me?” She said sternly, as all of a sudden, she considered war with the Hidden Leaf Village a worthy sacrifice, for the removal of this one person.

“Oooohh, a tough chick,” the third one said, as he now took a step in front of her, grinning lewdly as he tried to push his face into hers. She stepped back slightly at this, not out of fear, but of a knowing that it was either this or biting his head off. The look on her face refused to budge an inch. “I think I’ll have this one guys. I like mine hot and well done.”

“Now, now,” the first one piped up again, as if they had to take turns to speak. “Why don’t we all be nice and share the lady in front of us.” Sayuki’s face twitched slightly, as the stupidity of the situation in front of her. What on earth was this? They should know that she’s a jounin and thatall three of them wouldn’t have much of a chance against her, yet here they are trying to decide on who’s going to get into bed with her. It was quite clear why they were still all genin, unless they were testing her in some way. Her mind quickly took hold of the idea. Their behaviour was definitely unexpected for just meeting someone who is both your superior and a woman; they must be testing how she would react. She grinned as she decided to go along with their game.

“Hot and well done, is it?” she said, putting her hands in front of her, as if to caress him. “Shall I tell you how I like my men?” She waited for a response as she caressed the jaw bone of the second genin. It was greasy.

“Oh yeah, babe,” the man said, stuttering slightly in excitement. “Tell me how you like it.” He brought his hand up to touch her body, amazed at how fast the women was falling for his charms.

“Grated,” she said, surprising the little man before he could touch anything, “like you do with cheese.”

“Huh?” the shaved man grunted in confusion, as he saw the chick in front of him bring up a hand and perform a seal of some sort.

“Kazeton: Oak cutting,” the girl began to shout out. She stopped when she realized there was another pair of hands grabbing the hand that was now gripping the punk’s jaw. She turned to see a large bulky man standing to the side of her, grinning harder than most mortals could. “Yamato-kun?” she practically whispered.

“Yo, gal,” the man currently called Yamato signed to her. “You almost failed your mission instantly.” He started to laugh. “The great Sayuki, failing a comfort mission, now that would be embarrassing.” She snatched her hand away from him at this, an angry look appearing on her face.

“What’s the big deal, I was just going to cut him up a little bit?”

“I can’t have you injuring my new nakama right from the start, it would give you and Megumi too much of a head start.” The taller man grunted as he put an arm around the genin behind him, who looked like he had entered a state of mind doctors call a coma.

“Megumi’s here too? Sayuki said as she looked round to find her old friend. She then paused as the full extent of his words dawned on her. “Your nakama? But they said…”

“Huh?” Yamato interrupted her, “you guys are team 939, aren’t you?” The only man left currently unfazed, eventually replied.

“Erm…yeah I guess so.” Sayuki moved forward, and the genin suddenly found himself on the ground, with the hot babe on top of him.

“You said you were team eight. How dare you lie?” The man underneath her stared in fear, giggling slightly at the position he was in. Her long-time partner put his hand on her shoulder to coerce her off the boy.

“Easy, gal. How could they be team eight? Team eight would be this year’s rookies for the Hidden Leaf Village. These guys would have been genin for at least eight years.” Eight years? The idea flashed over her head as a complete impossibility. How could someone be a genin for eight years? In eight years, she had gone from being fresh out of the academy to entering the Jounin Exam. How bad did you have to be, to be a genin for that long? The Hidden Leaf Village was either really bad, or their village considered a war with the Hidden Cloud village a worthy sacrifice for the removal of these three people.

“Hang on,” the girl said as her mind finally clicked. “These are your nakama? I thought they were mine. Raikage-sama said I would be given adult genin.” She wondered why she was arguing such a point and began to look around. “Then who are my team?” she asked.

“Who knows?” He said with the grin of someone who clearly did know. That was the problem with Yamato-kun, Sayuki thought to herself as she glanced round aimlessly, he always had the annoying tendency to leave people to figure things out themselves, despite how helpful he could be. He loved to see people’s reactions to whatever situations they were put in. He lived for it. He even started smoking for no reason just to see everyone around him freak out about it. She stopped glancing around to be polite for a moment.

“How’d you wind up here anyhow?” She asked curiously. He took a long drag on the roll up before answering, his eyes staring at her the home time.

“I requested it.” He said, surprising the woman in front of him. “Thought it would be fun.” Her brow wrinkled in frustration to this piece of news.

“Fun?” She repeated. “How could any of this be fun? We have to look after little brats for a whole month that are probably spies without letting them get injured. We might as well be walking dogs through minefields?” The short, well defined man to the left of her just grinned at this, taking another puff and knocking some ash of his cigarette. As it disappeared into the grass, Sayuki became aware that the cigarette wasn’t actually real.

“That’s exactly why gal.” He replied, both his hands now empty of any object. “Fun, fun, fun.” Sayuki’s frustration grew, as she turned around and stomped her feet.

“I can’t do with this right now, Yamato-kun. I’ll see you later.” She started to head off, hoping he wouldn’t say anything as she left.

“Just keep calm and don’t do anything stupid to whatever runts you’re put with.” He shouted annoyingly to her. She didn’t even bother to turn back as she replied.

Yamato just sighed, “I know, I know.” He grinned through his squinted face. “Poor girl, still too emotional. If it wasn’t so delicious, it would be dangerous.” He turned to team 939 and grinned again, more friendly this time. “Come on. Lets get moving.” He said as he walked to a carriage that waited to pick them up. The three skinheads followed, as they each began to feel pain in their left cheeks.

Sayuki glided forward effortlessly, trying to find a suitable spot to shout to everyone in the area in order to find the elusive team eight. Her mind was in turmoil again. There were no other adult genin from the Leaf Village here. There wasn’t even any adult genin from any village here. It was getting too frustrating and this girl following behind her six feet away wasn’t helping anything. The kunoichi was just about to reach the edge of the Leaf group when she saw a familiar ponytail and stopped in her tracks. It was clearly Megumi, and she was just considering whether or not to shout her when the girl that had been following her caught up.

“Excuse me miss?” She turned round to see a girl with long, blond, glossy hair. Behind her were two boys, both had their eyes closed and seemed detached from the rest of the world.

“What?” She said sharply, but not to the extent where it surprised the girl.

“Sorry miss,” the girl said somewhat politely. “Did you say you were looking for team eight? That’s us.”

As she stared at the children in front of her, Sayuki joined the growing number of comatose patients in the nearby area. As she did, one of the boys, a slim teenager with half a ponytail sticking upwards, walked closer and stared at her for a moment as her eyes slowly imploded upon themselves and she shook slightly.

“Ya, no doubt about it,” the other youth said, as he observed the map provided by Kurenai-sensei. It was a relatively simple one, but was descriptive enough to tell him that they were right where they were meant to be, on a deserted beach belonging to the Country of Fire where, approximately two hundred miles east into the ocean lay the Country of Water. “But there are no boats in sight at all. I wonder if something happened?”

“Stay alert,” the third youth stated, as he kept watch over the great ocean in front of him. “We do not yet know what the specifics of this program are. The jounin that is supposed to meet us may be trying to test us.”

“Ah, good point, Shino,” Kiba said, as he raged within at not noticing what the other boy had. “Akamaru,” he called, drawing the attention of a small white dog that was, rubbing up against Hinata’s hand. “Keep watch for anyone that comes within thirty feet of us.” The dog barked in response to this and jumped up onto a rock nearby, lifting his nose as he scouted for any passers by. After about a minute, the dog barked once again and Kiba calmed down slightly. “Nothing at the moment I guess, but where is he supposed to be coming from anyway?”

“That way,” Shino said simply, extending a hand from his right pocket, to point off towards the ocean. From the shoreline to the horizon, nothing could be seen but water.

“I know that,” Kiba stated, groaning slightly, “but we can’t see anything off that way. I could understand being a little late, but it would take whoever is coming about two hours to get from there to here.”

“Regardless, we have nothing left to do but wait.” Shino stated, going back to looking across the ocean. Meanwhile, Akamaru and Hinata yawned at the same time. “I guess, but…”

“We just wait,” Shino repeated. “There is nothing more.” Kiba growled slightly at this, hating his teammate’s attitude at times. He walked over to where Akamaru was perched, checking the surrounding area.

Another half hour would pass, and even Akamaru stopped looking around, eventually dropping off to sleep on his human companion’s lap. Kiba would soon start to join the runt, feeling himself drifting in and out every few minutes. Hinata just sat there quietly, hands between her legs, as she watched over Shino and the ocean. Every so often, she too would find herself yawning as she heard the waves pass over each other.

Another half-hour passed, and Kiba joined Akamaru in temporary slumber. Hinata felt her eyes close on their own several times. The area was just too peaceful, and the sun was shining brightly upon the four of them. She couldn’t blame the other two for passing out in a situation like this and was glad that Shino was keeping watch for them and not complaining as they drifted off. It was kind of shocking, the boy had stayed standing even as the tide came in over his legs, determined to keep an eye out over the sea for any sign of their new jounin-sensei. She couldn’t help but admire him in his own way. There were some people that were just naturally suited to being a shinobi and he was one of them. Everything he did was decisive and cautious, he moved with an air that prevented him from being noticed. He was truly like the insects that he carried around inside his body. Hinata recalled freaked out about this at first, but had soon grown accustomed to it. She wondered if insects were like he was.

As this thought came over her head, she yawned once more realising how tired she really was once more. She closed her eyes, just for a second, letting a small wave of bliss pass over her. She was interrupted as she heard a shaking noise, like sand pouring out onto the floor. She opened her eyes to see what was there and saw a man standing over her, his skin caked in sand particles as he held a kunai in his hand held across her neck. The sun had moved slightly. She moved back out of reflex, only to be stopped by a knee against her spine. In front of her, a few feet away, there was another man beside Shino, holding a kunai to his neck too. She could only guess that the man behind her had Kiba trapped as well. She shook in fear at the whole situation. How could they have all been so careless, and where had these men come from?

“Well, that was quite pathetic,” a voice boomed all around. Hinata tried to track the source of it and guessed it to be in the ocean ahead of her. She saw the ripple and bubble in front of her and slowly, another man rose out of the water, arms folded. He slowly walked across the top of the water onto the sand. “I must applaud you, girl, you did much better than your two friends here.”

“Wh… what?” Hinata stuttered, as the man walked up to her. He was tanned with black, spiky hair, with brown eyes and a scar on his left arm. Judging by the way his throat was moving, he must have been underwater now for at least an hour, at least that’s what her eyes told her. The strangest thing about the man was that on his back appeared to be a large frying pan. The girl stayed frozen in shock. She knew she should move to attack, especially since she now knew this was a test by the new jounin and that the other men here were nothing but bushin. It was safer to attack now but the whole situation had petrified her, and why wasn’t Shino doing anything?

“A ninja should never let down his guard,” the man in front of her said. “If this was real, you’ll all be dead.” He released his stance and disappeared, as did the one behind her and the one by Shino.

“Corny,” the one remaining ninja stated, a total change in the tone of his voice, “but it’s only corny because it’s so true. Despite that, you all still suck.” He stared at the girl hard, as if he was checking something. “It should be basic survival, if you’re going to sleep, have one of you stand on guard, to protect the others in case of an attack. Don’t all slowly fall asleep and wait to be killed.” He stopped as Hinata started to stutter again.

“B, b, b, but, Shino.” She didn’t say anymore, but judging by where she was looking, he turned slightly to look at the boy staring out at the ocean. Grinning, he picked up a rock on the beach and threw it straight for the boy’s head. “Shino!” the girl cried out, as it slammed into the back of the boy’s head. He fell forward, before landing on his hands. She saw his small spectacles fall off, and he quickly fumbled to put them back on.

“‘Shino’ has been asleep the longest of the three of you, even before the dog and it’s pet dropped off.” He emphasised this comment by slamming his foot down into Kiba’s stomach, instantly waking the boy up and causing his animal companion to stir as well. “Get up,” he shouted to the three of them, grabbing their attention and waking them fully. Shino stood back up, his glasses now replaced. In his hand he held the rock the man had thrown at him, although he didn’t seem hurt. He wandered over to the others.

“Are you our new jounin-sensei?” The boy said calmly. This caught the older jounin by surprise, having expected the boy to complain after having his pride shattered. Instead, this `Shino’ just stood there and waited for an answer. Behind them, the third boy himself up, gasping desperately for air.

“That’s right, I am Danjuro,” Danjuro replied. “I will be looking after you for the next month and will be responsible for assigning you your duties whilst in the Country of Water. During this time, I expect nothing from you and in return I ask that you expect nothing from me, because you’re certainly not going to get anything. Any questions?” He waited for a moment, before Hinata raised her hand.

“Erm, did you really?…I mean….” The girl slipped over herself a few times. “Were you really underwater for that long, just to surprise us like that?” She stopped as realisation came over her as to why no one sensed him when they first arrived at the isolated beach. “Could it be you’ve been underwater even before we got here?”

“No way,” Kiba exclaimed, the movement of shouting causing him to flinch a little. “We’ve been here two hours now. There’s no way you’ve been here that long, we would have sensed you.”

“Like I said,” Danjuro replied turning back to the ocean, “you should never let down your guard. You might have spotted me had you paid attention and checked under the water. Instead you all decided to drop off to sleep for two hours.”

The three genin stared hard at him for this. What kind of man was he? Even Shino seemed a little concerned. The man began to walk onto the water and Hinata could see a small trace of chakra under his feet. He motioned for them to follow, as he laughed to himself.

“Nice. That was a good first impression,” he laughed quietly to himself. “Now hopefully they won’t be troublemakers. I can just give them little stupid assignments that take no energy, but take lots of time and I can spend a month just waiting for all this to end. No problems at all.” As he continued walking, he heard three noises behind him, as the three genin whose names he had not bothered to learn, began splashing behind him. As he saw them start to swim after him, he shuddered slightly. “They can’t walk on water?” he said loudly, as they caught up to him. It began to dawn on him that things weren’t going to go his way after all. “Damn that woman.”

Flashback: One month earlier.

He motioned to the four chuunin around him to hold their positions for the time being. Attacking now might cause problems, since they might respond by closing the factory. Waiting had proved worthwhile and luckily they were bringing out all ten of the weapons for transport at the same time. He observed patiently as the last of the lorries came out of the building. The engines of the vehicles that were to carry them began to roar into life, as final safety checks were performed. It wasn’t long before they started moving slowly down the mountainside, it was the disadvantage Danjuro had been waiting for and the main weakness of the entire country. The country of Lightening had always been associated with clouds and wind, mainly because around eighty per cent of the country was mountainous. This was one of the main reasons there were so many civil wars going on in the country, since it was near impossible to create a centralised point of power to start a proper government, and even when the countries of Fire, Sand, Water and many others had already formed successful political and economical systems, the country of Lightening was trailing behind due to the difficulty it’s people had in getting to the next town.

As for the current situation, it meant that if you wanted a secret factory base, the best place for it was on the other side of a mountain. However, it also meant that whatever you made there would have to be carried all the way down. It must have been a very inconvenient way to live, Danjuro mused to himself as his right hand tilted slightly.

The attack was begun by the spy, who had spent the past month as a janitor of the factory. Using a spy hadn’t gone as well as Danjuro had hoped and the man he had in there was unable to provide him with any real information for the entire two weeks. The only piece he had got was the actual time when the weapons were being released. As the chuunin finally broke disguise, currently under the pretence of getting a ride back home from the factory. Danjuro heard a cry from the first vehicle, shortly followed by the driver flying through the lorries door and off the side of the mountain. The jounin guessed that his spy was now planting the exploding notes in the bay of the vehicle before he saw him jump out and begin to run back up the mountain, past the other drivers who were probably too dumbfounded as to why their friend had just fell out of his lorry.

By the time he was at a safe distance, the truck had already blown up, the front part incinerating itself with the help if it’s own fuel. The secondary explosion shook the path and all watching looked on as the back of the truck began to fall off the side. With this, Danjuro gave the signal and the remaining seven chuunin launched themselves from the trees. They would have to get through a field and then past the factory before reaching the mountain path, but the trucks were cut off anyway. As the reached the factory, six of them immediately disappeared, only to reappear right beside the third and tenth vehicle. They had split into two groups of three and automatically assigned themselves to one of the vehicles.

One of each team dispatched the two drivers, whilst another set the explosive. The third, meanwhile, stood watch for that particular vehicle, before they moved on. It was a little under a minute before the next two weapons were slowly dropping off the mountainside. As a bonus, the second vehicle also began to fall off the side of the cliff face, the two previous explosions being enough to destroy the path below it. Danjuro watched as the two drivers helplessly fell to their deaths with the vehicles, already unconscious from the shock of the first impact.

With four vehicles destroyed, the chuunin moved up to the remaining, dispatching the drivers just as quickly. As they planted the explosives however, they were interrupted half way through, as kunai slammed down into the ground where they just were. The highly trained chuunin jumped back onto the trucks as quickly as they had left, as they observed other people on the cliffside above them.

“Hidden Cloud ninjas?” Danjuro said in slight disbelief, as he dropped down and began to run past the factory to where his squad was. As team jounin, his job was to stay back and protect them from ambush. Already, he could see a shinobi performing seals to make a genjutsu. He made himself more alert to any changes that were about to happen as he went to intercept the man ahead of him. As he did so, he noticed a presence on top of the factory. As he turned to face it, he threw five shuriken at and around the newcomer. Before he could even the one who had stopped his attack, three kunai made of wood landed in the ground beside him, followed by his own shuriken, now rendered useless. He stared hard at the wooden weapons now on the ground, before grinning slightly to himself. He looked up to face the female jounin from the Hidden Village of Clouds.

“It’s you,” he said calmly. “Long time no see, damn woman.” The woman stared back at him, looking slightly uninterested at what he had to say.

“What?” she replied. “Have we met?”

******************************************

“Fine, let’s hear your names.” She was now in a horse cart, having chosen the quickest way to get back to the village whilst carrying three pieces of heavy baggage with her. There were six more carriages on the road at the same time, carrying more jounin and genin back to the Hidden Village of Clouds. She wished more than anything that she was in any of the other carriages right now. She hadn’t even got a chance to speak to Megumi in the end. The other kunoichi was probably handling this a lot better than she was.

“Hi,” the girl of the group chimed as she raised her hand. Sayuki flinched slightly at her high-pitched voice. “I’m Yamanaka Ino from the Hidden Leaf Village, pleased to meet you.” She bowed slightly, which looked strange to the jounin, as the girl was already sitting down. This ‘Ino’ seemed to be one huge fashion accessory. She had slight traces of make up on, expertly done to show off her natural beauty, her hair was much glossier than Sayuki’s and she had an earring in each ear. The girl also seemed extremely happy that Sayuki was a woman, which probably made sense somewhere along the line, Being this happy,probably showed that she was glad that there were strong female jounin, as they provided inspiration for the girl to train and be strong and whatever. She turned to the next genin; hating the position she was in even more.

“Nara Shikamaru,” the boy to the girl’s left said simply. Actually, it was more like he groaned it. Looking at the boy, it seemed he had had way too much sleep and yet was still tired. He was probably the middle member of the group and didn’t seem to show much of anything. He probably scored below average marks and didn’t have motivation to do much. As such, it seemed he hated being here almost as much as she did.

The final genin took a few moments to give his name, as he finished eating the bag of crisps that he had brought along. Sayuki looked on in disgust, followed by shock and confusion, as she watched the boy devour the entire family-size bag of potato chips, before finally answering.

“Huh? Did you say something Question mark” Sayuki was visibly insulted at this; he had definitely been looking in her direction when she asked him. Was he an idiot? She watched as the girl whispered into his ear, although it looked like she was shouting, then he turned back and finally answered. “I’m Akimichi Chouji, pleased to meet you.” He seemed to make a little effort to bow, but it was hard to tell. He was definitely the lowest of the group. Judging by his overall size, he didn’t look that capable as a ninja. Maybe he had some skill in genjutsu, but she couldn’t imagine him being any good at Taijutsu. The boy was definitely all-fat with just a little muscle, he was probably the lowest in his entire class. Did that mean the girl was top of her year?

“Good, I’m Sayuki and I’ll be your jounin for the next month,” she began, trying her best to stick to the schedule she had made, before these three had everything with their presence. “Now I’ve been asked to keep it simple and just have you do D rank missions like you normally would. The majority of these will probably be basic jobs for people around the village. However I’ve also arranged for the last two weeks to be special training for you. I’m supposed to observe you and look at things you can improve on, over the course of your training.” She trailed off as Shikamaru lifted his hand and called out.

“‘Cuse me miss,” he said, over her voice, “but aren’t you from the Hidden Cloud Village?”

“Eeerrr yes,” she answered, as if someone had asked her if she was human. “Is there a problem?”

“I knew it,” he said unexplainably. “Asuma was messing with us again.”

“Excuse me?”

“Never mind, carry on, carry on.” He waved his hand at her as he lay back in the carriage. Sayuki stared at him for a moment in annoyance, before continuing.

“Anyway, we’ll get back to my village by around nightfall and check you into a hotel there. You’ll need to have your passports ready at all times in the village. When people see that you’re from the Hidden Leaf Village, you’ll be constantly questioned about it. Just show them and you’ll be fine. I’ll warn you now that if you don’t have them when asked, you’ll probably be attacked on the spot

“Do you think a jounin in your village would let an enemy spy explain himself out of the situation?” Sayuki asked back.

“Well, I guess not,” the girl replied, “but these are special circumstances, they should know there are genin from other towns in the village.”

“All the more reason for them to do it,” Shikamaru piped in, as he fell asleep.

“Exactly,” the older woman continued on behalf of the sleeping boy. “Some towns may choose to sneak ninja in, during the time of the program for whatever missions they choose. Most jounin and chuunin will have memorised the list of visitors, so if you show them your passport you’ll be fine. The Lightening country is in a state of war at the moment and some of those fighting are resorting to hiring outside shinobi, so some of us are tense. They probably won’t even ask and just recognise you as an official visitor, but well, you know…”

Ino shuddered slightly at this, before reaching for her bag. She knew inside that it wasn’t that much of a concern, but it was better to be safe than wind up with your head being presented back to your village, missing the other quintessential parts. She pulled her passport out of her bag and placed it inside a hidden pocket on the inside of her sleeve.

“Huh?” Sayuki commented. “You do that too huh?” as she made references to supplies hidden underneath her own clothes.

“Oh wow, you as well. Ino exclaimed. Not many people do it. Although I only do it with small things because I wear tight clothing and it’s hard to.”

“Yeah, save it,” Sayuki stopped her in mid-sentence, as she opened the door to the carriage. “I’m going to get some air, you three stay put now.” With that she jumped out comma onto the moving ground below her. From Ino’s view, it looked like she would have had crashed into the ground and disappeared behind the carriage comma but a few seconds later, they heard a bump on the roof, indicating her safety.

“Man, that was troublesome. Shikamaru complained. “She didn’t like us at all.”

“Quiet,” Ino shouted, bopping him on the head. “She just must have things on her mind that’s all.” She shook her fist at him with fury. “A high level jounin like that must have been taken away from some pretty important stuff, to have to spend a month with us. We should be grateful.”

“Teh, I bet she was just thrown with us as some kind of punishment.”

“Shikamaru!” Ino growled as her new idolwas insulted. “What makes you think that?”

“It’s too troublesome to explain it to you,” he said in a complaining tone. He looked at her as she continued to fume, steadily reaching a boiling point. He sighed loudly. “Fine, fine. Simply enough, it’s because we’re the lowest of the low. We’ve only been genin for six weeks and we’re all pretty young, not to mention our group’s the weakest.We’re the perfect bone to throw to the bad dog. No one else is going to want a group so useless.”

“You think so?” said Ino as she calmed down a little, looking to the base of the carriage.

“It’s probably the same with the other team. Although maybe not, they have Hinata with them. Her bloodline limit is probably seen as too valuable to throw at someone.”

“I guess, but,” Ino considered all this for a moment. “Sayuki-sensei does seem rather strong and intelligent.”

“That’s true, she was psychologically analysing us the very second she saw us.” The eighty year old trapped in a twelve-year-old body pointed out. “But she seems a little cocky about herself and she was also really annoyed that she was put with us. She probably doesn’t like kids or something, so it’s likely they put her with us to teach her a little humility, as a lesson for trying to be too independent or something.”

On the top of the carriage, Sayuki was jolted with realisation as she heard the boy speak. “So that’s it.” She grinned to herself as she began to understand Raikage’s intentions. She was impressed at the boy below, having thought that he was the middle member of the group, but now realized that he was clearly at the top. He hid it well though. She stopped herself as she realized that she was beginning to enjoy this a little. Growling to herself, she laid backthe roof of the carriage and allowed the wind to blow over her.

At times, she wished she were the wind, or maybe a cloud. They have it so much easier than everyone else.

**************************************

Chapter 1, complete.

Sniff, watashi no feedback, watashi no feedback doko da? WHERE THE HELL IS MY FRIGGING FEEDBACK???? WHY ELSE DO YOU SCUM THINK I’M WRITING THIS NONSENSE? IT CERTAINLY ISN’T FOR YOU TO ENJOY IT. I WANT FEEDBACK, AND COPIOUS AMOUNTS OF IT. MORE FEEDBACK THAN EVEN GOD HAS.

Anyway, I guess I should explain a few things here. Some people are probably confused with the terms used, mainly the Japanese ones, and would need a certain amount of Naruto understanding to get them. At least I’m better than some fanfic writers, who fill their work with tons of Japanese which they don’t even understand themselves just to make it look cool. I know quite a bit of the language and even I find it annoying when I’m reading something and finding people flipping the language just to say things like “nani”, especially when they are meant to say “nandato’. Anyway, here are some meanings, Naruto fans will probably recognise them.

Kawarimi (no jutsu)- replacement technique. Used when you get attacked. The ninja replaces themselves with another object. Stereotypically, a small tree trunk, however others can be used.

Bushin (no jutsu)- Replication technique. Creates an illusion similar to the user. However it is just an image usually used for distraction. There are special types of bushin which are more solid but usually take up more energy.

Henge (no jutsu)- Transformation technique. The third of the basic three. Allows the user to transform themselves into another image, such as that of the enemy.

Kunai and Shuriken- small bladed objects, usually used as throwing weapons

Kazeton- Wind technique (note: it’s meant to be Fuuton, but Sayuki say it differently out of personal choice)

Suiton- Water technique

Katon- Fire technique

Raiton- Lightning technique (it’s suppose to be kaminariton, but again Sayuki’s little quirks make her change it)

Doton- earth technique

Kuchiyose (no jutsu)- summoning technique- Through a contract of blood, and a huge amount of energy, a ninja can summon animals with this technique to aid them in fighting. All sorts of animals can be summoned through different seals and are different sizes depending on the energy used.

Nakama- comrade

Ninjutsu, genjutsu and taijutsu- I probably shouldn’t have to do these, but whatever. Ninjutsu are techniques that involved sneaking (or to endure patiently if we want to get technical), genjutsu are used for illusions and taijutsu is for hand to hand combat.

Mendokuse- How troublesome (this is what Shikamaru says every 0.5 seconds)

-sensei- suffix for teacher

-san- suffix for a certain level of respect (like calling Mr. Or Mrs.)

-chan/ -kun (friendly level of respect, although chan can be insulting if used on someone who is male or of high status)

jounin- term for high level ninja

Chuunin- terms for middle level ninja

Genin- terms for low level ninja

Side note: I’m not sure if it’s important, but I’m not sure if including trucks is a realistic factor, Naruto-world wise. The level of technology is always weird in naruto. Most of the paths are dirt roads, which implies no vehicles, yet they have vide recorders and other electronic equipment. I’ll try and keep the technology stuff low for now, just in case it offends Mr. otaku-chan